Help me stick to my new year goals

There’s always a few grumblers (probably the same group of folks who don’t believe in Santa) who refuse to make resolutions or goals of any kind for the new year. What’s the point, they ask?

Still, research shows more than half of us continue to make resolutions each year. Here’s the kicker — only eight percent of us accomplish our goals. I suppose that stat does give our naysayers credence.

I love New Year’s, though. In some ways it’s my favorite holiday. There’s just something refreshing about new beginnings, a fresh start, a clean slate. I get excited as the new year approaches, preparing for all I hope to accomplish in the days ahead.

Jeremy and I always make resolutions, although we prefer to call them ‘goals’ in hopes we’ll somehow trick ourselves into completing them if they don’t carry the stigma of a New Year’s Day resolution.

I’m a natural organizer and feel much less stressed when things are in their proper place, when order reigns supreme. So, we organized our goals this year by category — physical, intellectual, spiritual and financial.

All the organization in the world, however, won’t be sufficient to keep us from slipping beneath that eight percent completion stat. Accountability, good ‘ole fashioned peer pressure is more likely to push us toward success.

Yes, I need your help to make sure we stick to it and complete our goals, at the very least most of our goals. At year end, I’ll write a results column and see how we fared in 2020.

So here they are:

Physical — Run six miles, and hit the gym at least three times a week. I’d like to complete a 10K this year. (Jeremy didn’t know I was dragging him into this so I won’t include his physical goals. They’re a bit personal).

Intellectual — We’ll each read 12 books this year. Jeremy plans to get his first e-book published (nearly made it in 2019) and finish writing a second book.

Spiritual — In 2019, we both read the Bible from cover to cover, but this year we’re taking a slower approach, digging into specific topics of study instead. And, goodness knows we need to pray more. Doesn’t everyone?

Financial — We jumped on the Dave Ramsey and Financial Peace University bandwagon in 2019, and we’re doing well, but it’s really easy to slide off the rails, so we’re committing ourselves to pay off $10,000 of debt in 2020. I predict it’ll be the hardest goal we’ve set.

Eight days in, I’ve finished one book, hit the gym at least three days for the first week of the year, and chosen several topical Bible studies to complete in 2020. The holidays and all the yummy goodies that accompany them have me feeling a bit sluggish, but a two-mile run will soon turn into three and so on.

Life happens.

I’m not overly confident that Jeremy and I will meet all of our goals, but the possibility of accomplishing new things is, in itself, thrilling. Stick around to see how it all turns out!